It’s official: Congress is broken

April 28, 2013

Over the past several months, the Congress has continued to demonstrate it's ineptitude by failing to pass important and essential legislation in a timely manner, culminating in its failure to pass any significant gun control legislation. The Senate couldn't even pass an amendment to allow any of seven substantially watered-down versions of a basic background check bill.

Additionally, Congress failed to pass until the very last possible moment a stop-gap fiscal cliff bill until Jan. 1, and has continuously lacked any leadership on any bill since well over two years ago, when the president was halfway through his second term.

Congress is broken. The NRA and wealthy businessmen and superPACs' own Republicans, who are much more concerned about getting re-elected than doing what's right and necessary for Americas. Democrats are almost as ineffective, despite the fact they're on President Obama's side of the fence.

Congress members with integrity shouldn't be concerned about re-election and toeing the party line; they should be concerned about doing what's best for the people they represent. Sadly, they aren't.

Members of the House of Representatives are elected every two years. Every single one of them, I propose we vote all of them out of office next election, and elect new, naive, green-behind-the-ears men and women with integrity who aren't owned by any superPACs or wealthy individuals. Senators are elected every six years. Most of them are corrupt, too, but we can still send a message: Vote them out as they come up for re-election.

The problem isn't just the people. It's the system. The only way to get elected these days is to sell your soul to the highest bidder.

We need to revise the system. We need to eliminate campaign contributions over $1,000 by any one source. We need stricter laws to investigate campaign financing corruption. The problem is who has the power to fix the system?